Olympic champion Goggia dominant in Lake Louise downhill; Johnson in second

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Reigning Olympic champion Sofia Goggia of Italy won the first downhill race of the women’s World Cup season by a whopping margin of nearly 1.5 seconds on Friday, with Breezy Johnson second and her American teammate Mikaela Shiffrin back in 26th.

Goggia dominated the course on a sunny afternoon without wind, finishing in 1:46.95 for her ninth career World Cup victory in downhill.

“You know I hope she’s not unbeatable, but I’ll have to analyze it a little bit because it was an incredible run honestly,” Johnson chuckled in response to questions about Goggia’s inimitable run. “She’s showing what women’s ski racing can be, and you know I think the men should maybe start watching her a little bit too.”

She was the discipline champion last season — accumulating four consecutive wins before a right knee injury in January forced her to miss the world championships — and at this point must be considered the favorite to claim another gold medal in Beijing when the Winter Games start there in two months.

Johnson, a 25-year-old from Wyoming, claimed a second-place showing for the first time in her World Cup career by crossing the line in 1:48.42 — 1.47 seconds off Goggia’s pace. She was third in each of the initial four downhill races of the 2020-21 season.

“It’s been a process, getting better and better, so I feel really good. I felt like today was a really solid run,” expanded Johnson. “You can only ski 100%, so I’m going to try and ski 100% of my best and not worry so much about Sofia and going beyond my limits because that’s when I make mistakes.”

Mirjam Puchner of Austria was third Friday in 1:48.49.

World champion Corinne Suter was fifth.

Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Cup overall champion, was the 31st racer out of the start gate and ended up more than 3.5 seconds behind Goggia.

Shiffrin began as a technical specialist but has increasingly become a force in speed events, too, and her first World Cup downhill win came at Lake Louise in 2017.

“Right now, I have a pretty lofty goal of shooting to race in every event at the Olympics, but I can’t just go into it and do it,” said Shiffrin. “I’m trying to take these races as not only practice but training. The last run of downhill I had was in September and before that it was in May, so it’s trying to get as much as I can, as quickly as I can, and racing is really the perfect situation to practice finding your balance mentally and physically, and the right intensity for race mode.”

There will be another downhill on Saturday before a super-G wraps up the stop in Lake Louise on Sunday.

The Associated Press and U.S. Ski & Snowboard contributed to this report.

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